Sea Otters

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Sea Otters

Photograph by Ming Wang, My Shot

A couple of charismatic sea otters, mother and child, share a meal of crab caught at Point Lobos State Reserve on California’s central coast. These animals do nearly everything in the water, including giving birth and sleeping. Fur hunters once pushed sea otters to the brink of extinction and a century ago only 1,000 to 2,000 individuals remained. Today the otters are protected, and their numbers have swelled to perhaps 150,000.